When is the anniversary/big event you are planning?
I was on a committee that planned a 50th, and we did lots of fun stuff.
- Plan a whole weekend with some casual stuff too. I think we had Friday night a group that went out to eat (this was a smaller group). Saturday morning initiation of that fall's Alpha Class (and invited all alumnae). Saturday brunch with new initiates and alumnae. Saturday afternoon tours of the suite (other chapters opened their suites as well). Saturday evening big banquet. There was something on Sunday, but I can't recall.
- Invite all the International Officers in your area, as well as your Grand Council (or whatever it's called).
- We started sending out reminders and requests for money about a year out. We had a list of "lost" sisters and were able to find a very large number of them through others.
- I put together a "directory" of sorts that included everyone's contact information. We also asked members to send in favorite memories or what they've been doing and incorporated those stories into the directory. I organized it by initiation year. Everyone who attended got a copy.
- We did tshirts as a favor and also got umbrellas with the sorority logo on them. The umbrellas were a huge hit - they were unexpected, practical, and good publicity.
- I went to the campus library and pulled out all the old yearbooks. The archives scanned the ADPi pages for me and all the pages that had ADPis on them as "Class Beauties," Homecoming Queens, etc. We also asked alumnae to send in photos or memorabilia. We created a video with all of these images of 50 years of the chapter and played it while people were coming in to the banquet. We had songs from each decade playing in the background of the images.
- In the lobby area of the banquet hall, we set up tables full of memorabilia: old rush costumes, scrapbooks, composites, tshirts, photos, etc.
There was more, but it was 3.5 years ago and I can't remember it all right now! If I think of anything else fun, I'll post. I'll also try to think of what didn't work....